The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of apple tree, botanically known as Malus domestica Mill. of the family Rosaceae, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘FUJIKO’.
The new Malus ‘FUJIKO’ was discovered by the inventors, Michelangelo Leis and Carlo Mazzola, in the summer of 2002 in a block of Fuji apple tree designated as ‘NAGAFU 12’ (unpatented), growing in a cultivated area of an orchard in Migliaro, Ferrara, Italy. These trees of the new variety ‘FUJIKO’ were selected based on the distinctly different appearance of the fruits of ‘FUJIKO’ (more intense and diffused red skin surface color) from the fruit of the adjacent Fuji ‘NAGAFU 12’ trees.
The new Malus ‘FUJIKO’ was first selected from propagation and further testing by the inventors in 2002 in a controlled environment in Comacchio, Ferrara, Italy. Asexual reproduction of the new Malus ‘FUJIKO’ trees started by grafting onto M9 rootstock unpatented in February 2003 in a testing orchard near Comacchio, Ferrara, Italy. Some trees of Fuji ‘NAGAFU 12’ (unpatented), Fuji ‘Raku Raku’, Fuji, ‘NAGAFU 6’ (unpatented) and Fuji ‘T.A.C. #114’ (patented, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,032) were grafted on M9 roostocks in the same row and at the same time as ‘FUJIKO’ was first grafted on M9 rootstocks. First fruiting of the ‘FUJIKO’ trees occurred in 2004, and revealed that first produced from the ‘FUJIKO’ trees possessed characteristics which clearly distinguished ‘FUJIKO’ from other known Fuji varieties. Asexual reproduction of ‘FUJIKO’ has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new variety are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new variety reproduces true to type.